Georgian leaders urge EU to endorse visa waiver

Georgian leaders on Friday jointly called on the European Union to endorse a visa-free regime with Georgia at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Parliament Chairman Davit Usupashvili made the call in a joint letter sent to President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker and President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.

They said that the visa liberalization is a "critical step in advancing EU-Georgia relations" and granting visa waiver to the Georgian citizens will give them "a long-awaited tangible reward for reforms and encourage renewed efforts."

"It is our clear hope that the final declaration of the Riga Summit will contain an unambiguous endorsement of a visa-free regime with Georgia,"the Georgian leaders said in the letter.

The Georgian leaders also expressed hope in the letter that the country's "European perspective" will be acknowledged at the Riga Summit.

Georgia and the EU launched visa liberalization talks in June 2012, and the Visa Liberalization Action Plan, a set of detailed requirements that a country should meet in order to be granted short-term visa-free regime in the Schengen area, was presented to Georgia in late February 2013.

On October 29, 2014, the European Commission announced that Georgia met first-phase requirements of its Visa Liberalization Action Plan, paving the way for the launch of the second phase.

The Eastern Partnership summit of EU and former Soviet countries will take place in the Latvian capital on May 21-22. The partnership is an EU initiative with a stated goal of strengthening relations with its neighbors in Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Endit